Toinya Campbell wasn't exactly lost, but she was floundering. She was taking classes at Tallahassee Community College, but she didn't have a goal or a focus. She started out as a nursing major, but that wasn't the right fit.

Campbell, a Miami native, was enjoying an acting class when John Schultz first saw her. Schultz, who oversees TCC's nationally acclaimed speech and debate team, urged her to consider his program, which is a blend of theater and more traditional debate.

What the heck, Campbell said. Why not?

It was the equivalent of giving water to a wilting plant. Finding the speech and debate team helped Campbell find herself.

She blossomed immediately under Schultz's tutelage, winning gold and silver medals at national competitions during the past two years, not to mention a scholarship at TCC.

"It was everything to me these past two years," Campbell, 24, said. "I don't know what I would have been doing if I didn't have that. I always knew I wanted to act. I knew that acting was going to be the route I wanted to take. I didn't know how to get there, but once I found this team it was the same thing."

Also called forensics, TCC's speech and debate program combines traditional and contemporary material along with original pieces. It allows students to interpret passages or poems in ways that showcase themselves as well as the material.

It requires students to give up as many as 10 weekends to take part in state, regional and national events. For Campbell, it was also her introduction to flying when the team traveled to Chicago for a tournament.

Schultz has seen countless students come to life thanks to speech and debate, but few have emerged as dramatically as Campbell did.

"This is a young woman I saw transform over two years. She is so smart. She is one of the success stories that is the pinnacle example of what our college and also the speech and debate team are all about," Schultz said. "This team becomes like an extended family, and she was a perfect fit."

Campbell is now enrolled at Florida State, where she intends to major in communications and earn a minor in film. She is eager for the journey to continue.

This is a marked contrast to five years ago, when she came to Tallahassee for the first time. She offered to help her older brother get settled. He was entering TCC; she knew nothing about the school.

Campbell liked Tallahassee immediately. Compared to her North Miami neighborhood, it offered peace and tranquility.

She decided to take classes at TCC and, like more than half of the entering students at the school, she wasn't ready for college courses. Campbell was directed to a developmental education curriculum that shored up math and science skills that she thought she had mastered in high school.

"That was a wake-up call. I was like, 'Wow, I'm not ready?' I was surprised at first, because I did well in high school," Campbell said.

It took her longer than she would have preferred to get on track. And then there was the matter of not being sure what she wanted to concentrate on once she was cleared to pursue an associate's degree.

Fortunately for Campbell, she caught Schultz's eye early on. One key, he said, was pairing Campbell with the right material. He directed her to a Pearl Cleage play, "Blues for an Alabama Sky," and encouraged Campbell to join forces with a fellow student for a duo interpretation.

Campbell would go on to perform a poetry piece about empowering women in hip-hop. Perhaps her finest performance was a multi-character piece called "Nine Feet Under Water," inspired by Hurricane Katrina and the tragedy it wrought on New Orleans.

"Toinya was extraordinary with that piece. She played multiple characters and they were pristine," he said. "They had emotional precision. She tore up the competition."

Campbell doesn't claim to have the future all figured out. She knows she wants to earn a bachelor's degree. She knows she wants to continue in theater. Thanks to TCC, she now has the confidence to accomplish both.

"I think I got lucky," Campbell said. "I don't know what I would be doing right now if I didn't find the speech and debate team. I don't even want to think about it."